


A Promise

by Fericita



Series: Dangerous Secrets 'Verse [6]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, Novel: Dangerous Secrets: The Story of Iduna and Agnarr - Mari Mancusi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29073720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Some Gerda POV for Dangerous Secrets, referencing chapters 27, 32, & 41 and based on the idea @the-spaztic-fantastic and I joked about that it would have been hard to search in the library based on the usual...activities Agnarr and Iduna were getting up to in there. As always she beta-ed and made it better.  Thank you!
Relationships: Agnarr & Iduna (Disney), Agnarr/Iduna (Disney), Gerda/Kai (Disney: Frozen)
Series: Dangerous Secrets 'Verse [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033725
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	A Promise

_ Gerda _

  
  


I felt awful for Iduna.

Seeing her trembling and pale was a shock and so different from how she had been only two weeks ago, proudly telling Agnarr of Mr. Hansen’s windmill installation and how farmers all over the kingdom were clamoring for a consult with her. I loved how she brought so much joy to the castle. 

To Agnarr. 

Iduna had made the castle bright and full of joy even at the age of twelve, leading Agnarr on sock-sliding races down the corridor between lessons and playing games of hide-and-seek in the attic. More recently, Kai and I had traded smiles when they disappeared for hours at a time into the library room they thought was secret. We had learned to avoid the area when the echoes of laughter off the stone wall reached our ears.

Long ago, Rita had asked me for a promise. To ensure Agnarr’s happiness as much as I was able. To keep the dark cloud of despair that weighed her down from suffocating him as well. To be sure he loved and was loved.

So when I shut the door behind me as I lelt Iduna’s room, I sought out Kai and told him it was time to get to work.

“Everything is ready for the ball. What else needs to be done?” he responded, confused, running his hand through hair that was beginning to thin and then patting his belly that was beginning to thicken. We had both been so young when Rita first came to the castle and now, firmly in middle age, I wanted to prove to her memory that we had not forgotten.

“We need to find a way for Agnarr to marry Iduna, not this princess of Vassar.”

Kai spoke to me slowly, as if I had lost my head. “We’re not on the council. It’s not up to us.”

“We’re not on the council, but we can find those law books Lord Peterssen is always referencing - that he’s memorized. Surely we can find some minutiae or loophole or dispensation that would allow Agnarr to make a marriage of his own choosing, and not the council’s!”

“Is the library...unoccupied?” 

“Iduna is in her room, crying,” I said, not exactly answering his question but answering what he was really concerned about. We wouldn’t interrupt the two lovers because for now, they thought they couldn’t love each other. 

“Let’s start now.”

********************************************

“Still nothing,” Kai said, dropping another volume of Arendellian law onto the steadily growing pile of dusty tomes. “I really thought I’d find it in that one,  _ Regulations on Love Spoons and Other Marriage Traditions _ .”

“It’s not in this one either,” I said, placing  _ Kransekake to Lutefisk: Requirements for Bakers and Fishmongers _ in the pile as well. “And that was the last one.”

“Are you sure? Maybe Lord Peterssen or another council member took some books out of the library?” 

“No, there is no space left on this shelf. And you could see the layers of dust. No one has consulted these books in a long time.”

I started putting the volumes back on the shelf, Kai handing them to me as we worked steadily and quietly. I turned the problem over in my mind as I wiped down the shelves with my apron, thinking to myself that the castle staff could give this room a thorough cleaning now that the room was so often empty.

Suddenly, Kai gripped my elbow. 

“It doesn’t exist!”

“What?”

“The rule! It must not exist! If we couldn’t find it here, and there are no law books elsewhere - “

“It doesn’t exist!” I cried, covering my mouth with my hands. 

We whooped and shouted and even danced a little, Kai twirling me around then saluting me like he was King Runeard and I was a sailor rendering some brave service to the crown. The low reverberation of the harbor bukkehorn rang out and we both turned toward the windows that overlooked the fjord.

“That must be the Vassar ship,” Kai said, but even that didn’t sink my happiness. We’d found it - or rather, we’d shown what couldn’t be found. And it would be the answer to Agnarr’s happiness and my promise to Rita. No law existed that prevented Agnarr from marrying Iduna. And we needed to tell him as soon as possible.

********************************************

As soon as possible turned out to take a lot longer than either of us expected. 

I wrote a note to Iduna telling her what we found - and what we didn’t - but with welcoming our new guests and the flurry of activity that followed, I wasn’t able to deliver it until she had already left her chamber for the ballroom. 

There were flowers on her bedside table with a note beside them in Agnarr’s hand, but it looked untouched. I wondered if they had been delivered too late for her to see, or if she was trying to ignore Agnarr’s attentions, divided as they were between her and hosting the delegation from Vassar.

And then there was the ball. 

And a hot chocolate disaster.

And a hasty exit.

And a bomb.

And then Iduna was gone.

The maids had all sorts of gossip about it - that Agnarr had proposed to Iduna, that Iduna had seen Agnarr kissing Runa, that it was King Vassar’s fault Iduna made such a mess of the dessert table. 

“He’d make anyone nervous with that glower and false cheer!” said Olina, who wasn’t prone to making accusations. “Nothing ever below up before he got here. And our Iduna has never been the clumsy sort.”

That may have been true, but she had left behind her ballgown, twigs caught in the lace edging and grass stains on the hem, the whole thing draped over the notes written by Agnarr and me.

And then she was gone like Rita.

I saw Agnarr pacing the uppermost balcony, searching the fjord like he would be able to see her on a departing ship, and I wondered how I would keep my promise to her. I didn’t know exactly how I could, but I knew it started with telling him the truth. 

********************************************

Kai hugged me, practically lifting me off of my feet as we watched Agnarr and Iduna lift two rings of the krasnekake off with the top layer. I thought I heard Iduna say  _ Two daughters!  _ and for a moment I smiled through happy tears, thinking about two girls with Iduna’s bright and happy eyes, sliding down hallways and climbing trees and giggling through lessons. The crowd continued to cheer and I cheered with them, so happy that what Rita had wished for most had come true. 

Her son was happy. 


End file.
